


Fondest Memories

by HotdagaHermit



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: Anyways, Chicken soup angst babey!, First fic on AO3 yaaaaaaaaay, Gene is having none of it, HE IS, I’m rambling, Kinda mentions OCs? But it’s his family and dog so not really, M/M, Mike gets big sad looking at photos of his war bf, airhorn noises, enjoy, posted this on the Hotdaga discord server but, very gay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-26
Updated: 2019-03-26
Packaged: 2019-12-18 03:40:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18241646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HotdagaHermit/pseuds/HotdagaHermit
Summary: Mike gets emotional looking back on memories of the war, Gene notices and tries to cheer him up.





	Fondest Memories

It was a quiet, uneventful day aboard the Minestrone. Maizey was out wandering the halls trying to clear her head, Mike had retreated to his quarters, and Gene was bored. He lay splayed out across one of the couches in the main room, rhythmically tapping his fingers on his chest. He’d love to be playing some sort of game with the other two, or just talking with them, but he knew they couldn’t do that all the time. They had a world to save after all, it wasn’t a game.

After a few more seconds of idly tapping and humming random tunes, he hauled himself up off the couch, gently swinging on the balls of his feet, scanning the room for something to do. After coming up with nothing, he trekked the hallways, running his hands along the cold metal of the walls. Most of the rooms here were fairly barren, a few near-empty shelves, intercoms in the walls, a small window and bed, except one that had a bunk bed. Not much fun in any of them.

Gene was torn from his thoughts when he passed Mike’s door, an odd sound coming from inside, was it...crying? He frowned, pressing the side of his face to the door, trying to hear in. That was definitely crying. 

“Mike, you ok in there?” He called out, softly knocking on the door. There was a choking sound inside, the shuffle of a blanket and a few coughs.

“I’m alright.” Mike’s voice cracked, and his voice sounded off, Gene’s frown deepened. He tested the handle to the door, it was unlocked. Slowly opening it, he stepped inside, closing the door behind him, the sight he was greeted with broke his heart. Mike was curled up in his bed, leaning against the wall at the top with his pillow covering his face, his blankets balled up near the end. 

Slowly walking over, Gene sat on the edge of the bed by Mike, slowly reaching an arm out to rest on his shoulder. Mike flinched, moving back, Gene retracted his hand quickly. He cautiously moved his hand up, slowly pulling the pillow down and putting it near the end of the bed. Mike’s eyes were tears and red, his face blotchy, it was obvious he’d been crying. 

“Gene *please*, I’m-“ Mike was cut off by a sob he had been trying to hold in, pulling his hat off his head and holding it in front of his face, starting to cry again. He didn’t flinch when Gene started rubbing his back comfortingly, quietly shushing him, making no attempt to pull his hat away. A good few minutes had passed before Mike started calming down, rubbing the fabric of his hat, staring at the floor with tears in his eyes.

Gene figured pushing this wouldn’t do any good for either of them, he looked around, trying to see if there was anything that could help Mike or cheer him up a little. His hand landed on something under the blankets, small and hard. Lifting the covers back, he saw the brown, leather cover of a book. Mike’s eyes widened seeing the book, reaching a hand out to drag it towards him quickly. 

“Is that book why you’re upset?” Gene asked, his voice soft. Squinting his eyes closed, Mike nodded, shakily breathing in. 

“It’s...it’s a photo album.” Mike felt the need to explain, not managing to say anything more. Gene nodded understandingly, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

“Do you have any happy memories in there?” He asked, resting his hand on the cover. Without saying anything, Mike pushed the book in front of him, pausing to wipe his face, turning to one of the pages. There were a few polaroids inside, with some written notes beside each one, usually just a date and what the photo was. There were some of what Gene assumed was Mike and his family, a couple of a dog (Mike’s old German Shepard, Mister.)

Then there were plenty of Mike and some others in the war. A couple of him and random soldiers on the recruitment day, a smaller picture of him looking as stoic as he did now (his old ID photo), and even more notes beside them. After a page or two, almost every photo was of him and the same guy, they were the ones that brought the biggest nostalgic smile to Mike’s face, admittedly a few tears as well.

“Whoa, who’s this guy?” Gene asked, pointing to the man beside Mike in one of the photos. “He’s everywhere!” Mike chuckled, breathing in deeply.

“He’s...an old work friend. Ernesto Goondis, we served time together. We got...we got along really well.” Mike kept his eyes on the man, sadly smiling, a single tear rolling down his face. Gene slowly reached out, resting his hand on Mike’s shoulder, with no reaction from Mike.

“Well, he sure sounds like a great guy!” Mike looked up, smiling and nodding.

“He was, I...I really miss him.”


End file.
